There is a need for a magazine insert which can be readily removed from the primary or parent magazine without damage to the binding thereof or to the insert itself. Modern economics provides a demand for inserts in magazines to advertise various products through the use of brochures or small magazines which can be readily detached from the primary magazine. Two desirable attributes of such an insert are that, upon removal from the parent or primary magazine, it not damage the binding of the primary magazine and that it provide a bound article acceptable in form and condition to the trade. Heretofore most known inserts often fail in one or both of these respects.
There are a limited number of ways commonly accepted for binding a magazine. One is known as perfect binding wherein the edges of each sheet are burred to facilitate the absorption of glue applied thereto to hold all of the pages or sheets together and secure the pages or sheets to a cover. The other method most commonly used is known as saddle-stitching wherein each sheet is folded to produce two pages and the superimposed sheets are stitched with a staple or by other suitable means at the fold line.
Each of the above methods has the disadvantage of requiring a separate operation for each insert in order to secure the insert to the primary magazine into which the insert is to be placed. For example, with perfect binding it may be necessary to destroy or at least seriously damage the binding of the primary magazine if the insert is to be torn therefrom in bound form. In an effort to avoid this, some producers have glued a tab or hanger along the edge of the binding of the insert in a separate operation remote from the standard printing press folding and cutting machine on which the insert is formed, and then the assembly is glued into the binding of the primary magazine. With saddle-stitching, a separate operation attaching the insert to the primary magazine is also required, and the stitching of the primary magazine is destroyed or seriously damaged when the insert is torn therefrom.
Another method of providing a magazine insert is shown in Bailey, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,588,085 issued Jun. 28, 1971. By this process, the insert is made by applying adhesive at different locations to opposite sides of a sheet in ribbon form along opposite sides of a pair of spaced longitudinally extending perforations. The ribbon is folded upon itself transversely a number of times with standard printing press folding and cutting machine equipment, depending upon the number of pages desired in the end product. Then the ribbon is cut or folded longitudinally and appropriately trimmed to produce an insert particularly adapted for securement into the primary magazine by perfect binding or saddle-stitching, as desired. The problem with this process, however, is that the edges of the detachable insert are always loose and rough after being torn from the perforation lines. In addition, because of the location of the adhesive relative to the perforation lines, the insert is not a "lay flat" design and therefore can never provide a so-called "perfect two page spread" because the pages of the insert are glued and when opened will always be bowed. Moreover, this insert does not include any reply or response capability for the sender such as a removable reply card or the like.
Accordingly, it is desirable that the folding and cutting apparatus of a printing press be designed to eliminate the separate off-line operation of providing a tab or hanger for the insert and enable a readily removable insert assembly having improved appearance and functional characteristics.